Data Delights

Dispatches from a Data Science course

Prof. Brittney E. Bailey and her Data Science students

Fall 2021

As the semester comes to a close, we are delighted to share some data-driven discoveries from the Fall 2021 sections of Data Science at Amherst College!

Scroll down to explore the students’ blog posts or use the navigation bar on the side to jump to a particular group!

Blog Posts

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The Purple Tusks: The National Struggle for our Wellbeing During a Global Pandemic

As COVID uprooted every aspect of our lives and put us into isolation, the importance of mental health has been recognized more and more. The initial wave of COVID was filled with fear, confusion, loneliness and many other unexpected emotions. Debates over government response became more and more partisan as the pandemic started becoming the new normal.

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Los Hermanos Intermareales: Beaches in Galicia

We decided to focus on the individual characteristics of eight different beaches in Spain and how the beaches vary in biodiversity and geography. The data that we wrangled and analysed included species types, nutrients levels, locations, beach pitches, similarity, and experimental biodiversity levels.For each of the eight beaches, six samples of sediment, interstitial water, and surf water were analyzed for nutrient content of PO4, NO2 + NO3, and NH4. We looked at PO4 specifically because of the impact that it has on biodiversity in the area.

AAA: US Health Care Equity

Everyone deserves access to quality health care. However, this is not a reality in the United States. There are systemic health inequities, and the marginalized populations suffer the consequences. To examine this issue, we focus our BLOG on regional health insurance coverage status, the role of intersectionality in health disparities, and people’s experiences with public insurance.

Facts And Stats: Incarceration Rates in America

Courtesy of Golden Cosmos

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The Hogwarts Hammers: Suicide Rates Across the World

#VIETTA

giRlbosses: Sustainability on College Campuses across the US

For the sentiment analysis section of our project, I (Gillian) scraped Amherst College’s most recent sustainability report from 2017, which can be accessed here through R code. I needed to be able to convert it into a data frame in R, which is why I scraped it. It is a .txt file with one string which I tokenized into words, removed the stop words, and counted the word frequencies to use in my sentiment analysis. We wanted to examine the sentiments found in this report because it will provide insight on how the college’s administration discusses issues surrounding sustainability.

Shiny Sea Turtles: Netflix

Entertainment plays an important role in every human society, across time periods and across geographical locations. From the micro to the macro level, each individual is trying to find a new and better way to keep themselves engaged. One of the most prominent forms of entertainment in our recent history is cinema, a multifaceted tool for both those seeking intellectual stimulation and those hoping to unwind and power down. In the past few decades, we have observed a gradual transition from going to the theaters and home video to on-demand through streaming platforms. The rise of such platforms, namely Netflix, may be attributed to tangibles such as consumer preferences, ease of access, and an enormous increase in selection. A consequence of this occurrence, however, is a rise in global connections through entertainment. Viewers now have access to a plethora of titles in various languages right at their fingertips, and the travelling of ideas across cultures, languages, and thought processes has never been easier. We aim to explore just how widespread a reach Netflix has by looking at its global distribution, emotional nuances depicted in films, and connections between artists that have worked in Netflix films. This exciting period in human history suggests promising growth and new understanding; however, it carries with it the possibility of broadcasting charged information or narratives. It is therefore our responsibility to study this tool and all its abilities in order to promote positive development.

Five Chives: Environmental and Sociodemographic Determinants of Mortality in the US

In order to analyze environmental and sociodemographic factors related to mortality rates, we used data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). [[ADD MORE HERE]]

Data Diggers: **

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